黑洞社区

黑洞社区 welcomed Phase One networkers into our luxury apartments last night 鈥� well, Urban Splash's luxury apartments at the Rotunda in Birmingham, where more than 100 young professionals from across the construction industry took in the view across the UK's second city from the 19th floor.

They also heard from the project team at the long-awaited Birmingham Gateway project, a 拢600m redevelopment of the city's key hub, New Street station. From client Network Rail, head of design Carol Stitchman described how she has spent the past eight years working out a more efficient and enjoyable way to deal with the 120,000 people who use New Street every day, bringing in natural light and much improved accessibility.

Then John Worthington, lead project manager at Mace for the New Street redevelopment, explained the supremely technical workings behind concept architect FOA's super-shiny stainless steel facade 鈥� and exactly how the team is going to completely transform a working station on a tightly enclosed site with no possibility of budget overruns, by 2014.

Afterwards, there was a volley of questions from the audience, ranging from 鈥淣o, but what's it really going to cost?鈥� to the impact of the recession to how on earth they were going to keep that facade clean.

Noelle Wright, design package manager at lead consultant Atkins, responsible for translating FOA's design into something buildable, was also on hand to answer questions about the sustainable technologies that will be incorporated. The station must achieve a 鈥渧ery good鈥� BREEAM rating, albeit on a bespoke scale 鈥� BREEAM doesn't easily assess stations, added Stitchman 鈥� though it should at least score highly on public transport.

Watch fly-throughs of the new station at .

黑洞社区 would like to thank Network Rail and Hill International for sponsoring the event, and Staying Cool for providing the venue.

The next Phase One event takes place in London on 9 July. Go to to register for more information.